JJ's Blues, iconic San Jose blues bar, to change hands

For the last three decades, JJ's Blues, an iconic San Jose dive bar, has illustrated heresy: You can create something important in Silicon Valley without making money.

Now it's about to change in a way that will keep the name -- and the storefront -- but offer a diminished portion of what made the place distinctive, the soulful rhythm of the blues.

After 10 years of running the long, narrow bar at 3439 Stevens Creek Boulevard, owners Johnnie and Gloria Perkins are selling to Latinights LLC, which is expected to offer a much bigger share of rock, reggae, Latino and DJ music.

"We've been at this for 10 years," a youthful Johnnie Perkins told me Friday. "We don't have time to manage everything on a day-to-day basis. I think it's better now to pass the baton on."

It is a celebrated baton. JJ's has reached its iconic status by nurturing the careers of blues artists such as Chris Cain, Lara Price, J.C. Smith and John Garcia. Maria Muldaur, known for her hit "Midnight at the Oasis" even sang at JJ's.

But changes are ahead: In the words of one my correspondents, it's a little like Henry's Hi-Life, the vintage steak restaurant in downtown San Jose, being sold and reopening as a pho noodle shop.

Sept. 1 changeover

A principal with Latinights, Gabriel A. Meza, told me that he was "ecstatic" when he heard that JJ's was for sale. The escrow on the deal is scheduled to close on Sept. 1.

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"We'll continue with the blues but we're going to spread it around and give people different flavors," Meza said. "We'll do as many creative things as we can to bring people in."

Meza pointed to a model in Santa Cruz: Moe's Alley, which has a lineup over the next weeks of reggae, New Orleans funk, hip-hop and rock.

There will be one other difference, Perkins says: On slow Monday and Tuesday nights, when JJ's generally has jam sessions open to the audience, the new owners are expected to use DJ music.

All this is likely to make JJ's more profitable: Typically, blues bars do not make money on the music. Instead, they sell drinks or food. JJ's has only drinks. It has faced competition from the downtown-based Poor House Bistro, which sells food.

Nurturing talent

Founded in 1983 by June Stanley and her brother, Max, JJ's became a magnet for musicians and blues-lovers in the Bay Area.

The layout of the place engraved itself on blues fans -- a narrow 18-foot wide room that stretched far back from the street. A 12-by-12 stage at the front could seat a dozen musicians if they got along, maybe four if they didn't.

During the boom of the 1990s, JJ's also had locations in downtown San Jose and Mountain View. Cementing its place in the city's cultural landscape, the bar sponsored a downtown blues festival.

More importantly, it became a place where blues artists could develop their craft and put bands together: Lara Price, for instance, credited JJ's for a musical education.

Changing hands

Stanley sold the bar in 2004 to one of her customers, Perkins, who was then finishing up a master's degree and now has an engineering job in the solar industry.

A talented piano player, Perkins thought he'd hold onto JJ's for a few years -- he called it his "blues-collar" job -- and move on.

When the economic downturn hit, he was forced, in his words, "to eke it out." He says he never took a dime out of the place.

And yet he -- and anyone who went there -- took something bigger home, a memory of a place that nourished dreams. The photos of the artists on the walls underscore that.

The new JJ's might create its own memories. You can wish the new owners well. But it will be a more commercial place, less "high-touch," as Perkins put it. And that ought to cause a moment of the blues for all of us. "We're the last of the dinosaurs," Perkins told me.